Headlines

Bruins' Kelly injured against Senators

by
Erin Nicks
/ NHL.com

OTTAWA -- Things got chippy during the Boston Bruins' 3-2 shootout victory against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Place on Monday, with Chris Neil on the giving and receiving ends of both incidents.

Chris Kelly

Center - BOS

GOALS: 2 | ASST: 4 | PTS: 6
SOG: 30 | +/-: -6

At 11:41 in the first period, Neil was driven into the boards by Adam McQuaid and fell to the ice. Neil took several minutes to get to his feet, requiring assistance from the Ottawa trainers to exit the ice. Neil returned to the bench several minutes later, but not before Patrick Wiercioch fought McQuaid on behalf of his teammate. McQuaid was given a boarding penalty for the hit and five minutes for fighting. Wiercioch received 19 minutes in penalties -- a fighting major, two minutes for instigating, two minutes for instigating while wearing a visor, and a 10-minute misconduct.

Boston (17-3-3) will visit the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday. Kelly will make the trip with the Bruins but it remains unknown if he'll be able to play.

"He's been looked at, but we're going to bring him with us to Pittsburgh," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "We'll see how things pan out."

Neil did not speak to media after the game, but Senators defenseman Chris Phillips claimed that any insinuation of malice on Neil's part against his former teammate was inappropriate.

"That's outrageous," Phillips said. "[Neil and Kelly] are pretty good buddies off the ice. Not that [Neil] isn't going to try and hit [Kelly]. But it kind of looked like a collision. I saw the replay and I thought [Neil] was trying to spin back out of it when he hit him. He certainly wasn't leading with his knee to take him out."

Kelly has two goals and four assists in 22 games this season and averaged 15:39 of ice time entering Monday's action.